Schultz, Charles

SCHULTZ, HYDE, HARN, WAGNER, RICHARDS, CARVER

Posted By: Roseanna Zehner
Date: 7/25/2006 at 13:05:21

SCHULTZ, CHARLES

Charles Schultz, who is now a resident of Doon, Lyon county, has been in many places and tried many things, but the larger part of his life has been devoted to agriculture. He has proved himself an all around business man, ready for whatever turn the wheel of fortune may make and quick to profit by any opportunity to turn an honest dollar.

Mr. Schultz first came to Lyon county in 1870, when he took up as a pre-emption claim the northwest quarter of section 32, Wheeler township, and the following year made a homestead entry of the southwest quarter of the same section. Here he built a house and barn, with the other buildings necessary for the successful operation of these fertile acres. About 1880 he sold this place, and bought an improved farm in Garfield township, on which he made his home for some five years. At the end of this period he disposed of this place, and purchased another farm in the same township, which he held until 1890. That year he sold his farm and moved to Rock Valley, where he went into a restaurant and bakery business, which he carried on for about a year. This establishment he sold, and bought the Sioux Center House at Sioux Center, and operated it as landlord for a year. His next move was to go to South Dakota, and take a farm, to the cultivation of which he devoted three years. Selling this, he was engaged in farming until 1900. That year he disposed of his South Dakota possession, and coming back to Doon, bought a property which he has improved for a permanent home.

Mr. Schultz was born in Germany in 1845, and came to America in 1853. The ensuing ten years were spent in farm life, and in 1863 he enlisted in Company I, Eighth Iowa Cavalry. The regiment was organized, mounted and drilled at Louisville, Kentucky, and hurried into the field, and at once engaged in hard fighting at Nashville. In fact the Eighth was a fighting regiment, and did much hard work in the pursuit of General Forrest, being almost all the time in the saddle, and only stopping when the exhaustion of the command compelled it to return to Nashville and recruit. They were engaged in a two-days' fight near Atlanta, where they also engaged in a three-weeks' campaign, meeting with a repulse which drove them back to Nashville to again recruit. The regiment was continuously in the active campaign until the ending of the war. Mr. Schultz was wounded once by a rebel bullet striking him in the leg. At one time the regiment was surrounded by the rebels and narrowly escaped capture or annihilation. The colonel commanding was shot six times, and the captain of his company was shot twice in the right arm, once in the left arm, and once in the shoulder. The regiment was about destroyed when seventy-two men saw an opening through which they charged and escaped, Mr. Schultz being with them. After the war the regiment was engaged in guarding arsenals and supplies until August, 1865, when it was discharged. Mr. Schultz returned to Elkader, Iowa, where he remained until his coming to Lyon county.

Mr. Schultz is a son of Christian and Dora Schultz, both of whom were natives of Germany. They brought their children to this country, locating in Clayton county, where they remained until 1870, when they settled in Lyon county in company with their son Charles. The mother was the first white woman to settle in Wheeler township. Both father and mother have now passed away, he at the age of seventy-six, and she at the age of seventy-five. Mr. Schultz was married in 1872 to Miss Jane Hyde, a native of Iowa, and a daughter of John H. and Hannah (Harn) Hyde. To this union have come five children: Lilly Belle, the wife of John Wagner, and the mother of three children--Hazel, Gertrude and Helen; George W., married and the father of three children,--Benjamin, Bertha and Bernice; Mary, the wife of William Richards, and the mother of one child, Vera; Bertha the wife of C. Carver, and the mother of one child, Cecil; Hannah, at home, a teacher by profession. Mr. Schultz belongs to the White Lake (South Dakota) post of the Grand Army of the Republic, where his wife belongs to the Relief Corps.

Source: Compendium of History Reminiscence and Biography of Lyon County, Iowa. Published under the Auspices of the Pioneer Association of Lyon County. Geo. Monlun, Pres.; Hon. E. C. Roach Sec’y; and Col. F. M. Thompson, Historian. Geo. A. Ogle & CO., Published, Engravers and Book Manufacturers. Chicago, 1904-1905

Transcribed by Roseanna Zehner, Darlene Jacoby and Diane Johnson